Sunday, January 2, 2005

Dept. of Thinking This is one of the finest science essays I've read in a while and reminds us that sometimes, being "only human" is a very good thing. Even Einstein Had His Off Days. While we should laud Einstein's achievements, we may learn a more valuable lesson by investigating his greatest failure. By By SIMON SINGH. [NYT > Opinion] Even Einstein was wrong now and then, but even when he was wrong, he could be right. Einstein was reluctant to invoke God, so his solution was to fiddle with his theory of general relativity, adding an antigravity force alongside familiar gravity. This repulsive force would counteract gravity over cosmic distances, thereby maintaining the overall stability of the universe. There was no evidence for this antigravity force, but Einstein assumed that it had to exist in order to provide a platform for eternity. ... However, in 1929 Einstein was forced to eat humble pie. Edwin Hubble, working at Mount Wilson Observatory in Southern California, showed that all the distant galaxies in the universe were racing away from one another as though they were debris from a cosmic explosion. The Big Bang model seemed to be correct. And, while it would take several decades before the theory was accepted by the scientific establishment, Einstein, to his credit, did not fight on. "This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened," he said, and even called his repulsive force the biggest blunder of his career. But it turns out he was right...... It might seem that Einstein emerges from this story as a flawed genius, one who was not perfect. In fact, there is a twist to the tale, one that implies he was perhaps better than perfect. If gravity pulls everything together, then the expansion of the Big Bang should be slowing, because all the receding galaxies would be attracted to one another. In 1998, however, when astronomers tried to measure this deceleration, they were astonished to find that the universe is in fact accelerating. The galaxies are apparently moving apart faster and faster as time passes. What is the best explanation scientists can come up with? The existence of an antigravity force. Theorists call this repulsive effect "dark energy," but it is exactly the sort of force that Einstein posited to maintain the stability of the universe. 5:27:06 PM     leave/read comments []

Dept. of Hope I love this: Hell Austria, Hello Vienna. Hitler is dead, Haider* insane, fuck all the Nazis, Cheers for the Punk (* Probably means Jörg Haider, the most influentual opinion leader of an Austrian right wing party.) Source Link... [Metroblogging Vienna] 3:44:41 PM     leave/read comments []